OSPE - The Voice - June 2020 - 31

ENGINEERING ACADEMY

Dionne Aleman, Ph.D., P.Eng.

is using Industrial Engineering Techniques
to Track COVID-19's Spread

aily during the Provincial and Federal government briefings we are
given new measures, policies, and details on how to best "flatten the
curve" to stop the rapid spread of COVID-19. As the virus spreads on an
unprecedented scale, and new data comes in, we begin to understand
the efficiency of policies like social distancing. As the government tries
to control the virus, new data can help us understand which public policies are most
efficient and which different practices best combat the spread. Dionne Aleman, Ph.D.,
P.Eng., industrial engineer and professor in the Department of Mechanical & Industrial
Engineering at the University of Toronto (UofT), is hoping that her new research in
pandemic modeling can lead to decisions that curb the spread of COVID-19.
It's easy to see that Dionne Aleman was always destined for industrial engineering.
She was born into a family of them-even if she didn't know it. After talking to her high
school guidance counsellor, she landed on industrial engineering as a dream career,
largely because of its ability to meld her passions for English, Math, and Sciences. "I
went home to tell my parents I know what I want to be I want to be an industrial engineer
and they both looked at me like I was crazy and said 'We're both Industrial engineers, how
did you not know that?'"
As Aleman explains, it's an easy mistake to make. "Most people who are industrial
engineers don't have a literal job title of industrial engineer. It's almost like a feeder
degree of a wide variety of areas where just being technically minded is a huge advantage."
Aleman's mother spent her time running the family business, and her father worked for
the Miami-Dade transit authority, but both were very much involved in efficiencies and
processes.
Industrial engineering's ability to blend different fields is what makes Aleman's
work in her Medical Operations Research lab at UofT so valuable during the COVID-19
global pandemic. Her and her research team's pandemic modeling is based on applying
operational research techniques to medical decision making. The hope is that by applying
methodology from operational research, which is a branch of industrial engineering, to
medical policies, the most vulnerable members of society can be protected in times of
crisis, such as the spread of COVID-19. This is made possible because Aleman's research
is focused on providing specific, data-based evidence on which groups are most vulnerable
to a virus like COVID-19. By identifying these groups, the government can adopt public
policies that are targeted to protect and benefit them, and consequently keep the general
public safe.
By bringing the strength of her industrial engineering background to medical policies,
Aleman hopes to find deeper meaning from traditional epidemiological models that
rely on reproduction numbers. "A reproduction number is the number of people that
an infected person will infect on average," she explained. "So for COVID-19 it's thought

Dionne Aleman, Ph.D., P.Eng.

"Most people who are
industrial engineers don't
have a literal job title
of industrial engineer.
It's almost like a feeder
degree of a wide variety
of areas where just being
technically minded is a
huge advantage."
- Dionne Aleman, Ph.D., P.Eng.
Summer 2020 THE VOICE

OSPE - The Voice - June 2020

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